Hate in America: The Assault on America’s Jews and the State of Israel

As extremists on the political right seek to discredit American Jews, the BDS Movement and its allies on the left are committed to undermining Israel. For the first time in American history, Jews are contending with actual threats from both political extremes.

There is a new wave of anti-Semitism in America driven by a number of factors as referenced in an earlier piece (February 28, 2017) found on this site.

Beyond the headlines in the media over bomb threats, cemetery desecrations, and acts of individual harassment, all directed against Jewish Americans and their institutions, the latest report issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center spells out an even more disturbing picture of “Hate and Extremism: The Radical Right Enters the Mainstream” (Intelligence Report: Spring 2017, Issue 162). Similarly, on the political left the BDS Movement is being described as an effort to dismantle the Jewish State. In the history of this nation, anti-Semitic actions were either directed from the right or the left, today there are challenges emerging from both political factions.

In 2016, according to the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center), there are more than 900 hate groups operating in the United States, making this one of the most significant periods of hate expression in the history of this nation.

Themes

Radical Right

Extreme Left

Primary Case

Jews as non-patriots

Israel as a criminal state

Organizing Strategies

Conspiracies advanced charging Jewish control of government, financial institutions and the media

Equate Israel with Nazi-like behaviors

Message(s)

Create doubt about America’s Jews as true patriots; depict Jews and their organizations as disloyal to this nation

Promote the BDS Movement, seeking to isolate and marginalize Israel

Tools

Social Media, Right-Wing Publications and Public Events

Rallies, Demonstrations, Sit-Ins

Target(s)

Media-Public Opinion-Grass Roots Groups

Campus-Corporations-Churches-Community/Civic Organizations

Goal(s)

Undermining the image of American Jewry; questioning Jewish loyalty to America

Seeking to weaken the image of the Jewish State; undermine support of Israel with target audiences

In a disruptive and divided political climate of deep partisanship and rancor, where there is minimal sanctioning of abusive rhetoric and anti-social behavior, the spawning ground for hate is more easily introduced. Where public messaging today readily dismisses “politically correct” ideas in the name of national security and patriotism, an unsettling social climate emerges.

Social media has increasingly served as a platform for hate messaging in the form of conspiracy theories and the promulgation of “false facts.” The presence of hundreds of extremist websites joined together by links has produced an interlocking system of hate speech. With the marginalization of factual information, it becomes easier to market messages of political hate, creating an environment not only conducive to hate rhetoric but also to physical abuse. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that such practices as immigrant bashing, assaults on Muslims, and racial profiling would likewise generate attacks on the Jewish community and the State of Israel.

Unpacking the Assault on Jews, Judaism and the State of Israel:

This current wave of anti-Semitism/anti-Israelism incorporates a specific set of targets and strategies:

Portraying the policies of the United States and the West as serving “Zionist” interests, benefiting the State of Israel and supporting Jewish “international goals.”

Identifying Jews as undermining Western concepts, universal values, and American interests.

Attacking Judaism as a false and corrupt religious tradition.

Accusing Israel of “Nazi-like” practices and ideas while associating Israeli leaders with Hitler, employing terms such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes to describe and document Israel’s behavior.

Introducing conspiracy theories as a way of linking Jews to more sinister behaviors, i.e. control of international business and banking, “Zionist” domination of U.S. foreign policy.

To achieve their basic goals of isolating and stigmatizing Israel, the Jewish people, and Judaism, today’s actors and critics are employing specific tactics:

Advancing boycotts, sanctions and disinvestment (BDS) campaigns directed at Israel and designed as well to isolate and delegitimize those who are identified as part of the “pro-Israel” community. Here one ought to be reminded that of laws and regulations invoked by the Nazis contained many of the same characteristics designed to intimate and isolate Jews.

Introducing one-sided resolutions that are designed to single out Israel and its policies.

Framing hate messages against Israel, Jews, and Judaism in the name of promoting international order and bringing forth “truth.”

Employing social media, creating written and verbal threats, and harassing Jewish/Israeli spokespersons.

Justifying and even sanctioning physical attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions.

Introducing in the international media and cyberspace misleading headlines, defamatory cartoons, and stories inaccurately portraying Jews, Judaism and Israel.

Promoting conspiracy theories about Jews and the State of Israel, while maintaining the mantra of Holocaust denial.

Beyond the American experience, traditional anti-Semitic institutions and extremist groups worldwide have begun to adopt many of the current themes being orchestrated in the United States by hate organizations.

In the End:

Contemporary anti-Semitism remains rooted in its traditional assault on the status of Jews. Today, it also represents a widening battleground, in part created by the contemporary environment within this nation, encompassing the case against the very existence of a Jewish State, the Jew as citizen, and by extension an assault on particular aspects of Western civilization which are seen as “Jewishly” inspired or controlled.

Steven Windmueller Ph.D., on behalf of the Wind Group, Consulting for the Jewish Future.

Reader Interactions

Comments

Rav todot for the even handed approach you took citing sources from both the left and the right sides of the aisle. How welcome and refreshing this is in the face of the one sidedness of opinions more typically found in non Orthodox Jewish fora. Kudos to eJp as well for being an exception to what appears to be that rule.

This is shocking! Right wing gentiles I can understand, but leftist self-hating destructive Jews I can’t. I suppose it was only a matter of tim. Vandarising their own cemeteries, bombing Shulso, burning Mezuzas etc. What do they think? That Trump is going to change his mind? We will fight for our land, and we will not bow down to false right wing perceptions of us, which are likened to the Protocols of Zion. We do not control the world. We have suffered, and deserve a State of our own. It is our heritage!The Palestinians, whom the Arab Nations rejected, are our problem. We need to deal with it humanely. Believe it or not, we are the most humane people in the world.

As a parent raising teens who embrace the progressive values of Judaism, it is especially frustrating to learn of the involvement of Jewishly educated clergy among some of the most troubling hate speech. Alissa Wise, Reconstructionist Rabbinic College Smicha ’09), is leading the JVP National Convention Panel next week with convicted terrorist and Jewish student murdered Rasmeah Odeh. Brant Rosen, RRC ’01 and current board member, is hosting the JVP convention in his hometown Chicago. Brian Walt, another RRC graduate and long-time human rights activist, wrote a piece in the Forward arguingStudents for Justice in Palestine shouldn’t be expelled from Fordham’s campus despite the group’s terror connections, long history of hate speech and virulent anti-Israel efforts.

The Reconstructionits in particular are heavily involved with group’s deemed anti-Semitic and affiliated with campus hate speech. Over two-thirds of JVP’s Rabbinic Council is made up of RRC Rabbi’s, providing the group with cover the they advocate for full BDS support, against legislation designed to curb anti-Semitism and other sensical moves.

Personally I am very clear that Israel is the land of my people, my cousins and one of my son’s who made Aliyah. Sometimes I am uncomfortable with policies set by Israel that are as cringe worthy as in the US . That doesn’t lead me to extremism. It leads me to a quandary. I struggle with how to find the place to express my belief in Israel, my sometimes love and sometimes critic of policy and an ability to listen to others who think very differently than me. Is this a liberal crucible or a path to a piece of peace?

You wrote: “I struggle with how to find the place to express my belief in Israel, my sometimes love and sometimes critic of policy and an ability to listen to others who think very differently than me. Is this a liberal crucible or a path to a piece of peace?”

There is a difference between liberal and the extreme left as Dr. Steve labels the group in his comparison chart above. Alan Dershowitz is a liberal; the folks named by Richard in his response above are members of the extreme left.

There is also a difference between listening to those “who think very differently” from oneself and the necessity of calling out those of the extreme left by name as did Richard, and naming what they stand for as the antisemitism that it most certainly is. Unfortunately, in this world of political correctness, it takes real courage to call a spade a shovel (h/t Dr. Phil).

Re Israel and some of her government’s policies, please check out the article at the link that follows.

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